Shaquille O’Neal said some incredibly stupid things five years ago, claiming to believe the Earth is flat. Those stories died down a while ago — I suspect a publicist took him aside and explained “Ouyay oundsay ikelay anyay idiotyay, ixnay ethay atflay earthyay BS” — but it has flared up again with recent remarks on a podcast.
The NBA legend, 50, was asked during an appearance on The Kyle & Jackie O Show if his former comments about the conspiracy theory were a “joke” or if he did, in fact, believe the notion to be true.
“It’s a theory,” O’Neal told hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson. “It’s just a theory, they teach us a lot of things. It’s just a theory,” he repeated.
“I flew 20 hours today, not once did I go this way,” O’Neal said, noting he “didn’t tip over” or “go upside down.” He added that he’s also unsure about whether the planet is spinning.
It’s OK. If you don’t mind that I’ll forever after disregard everything you say about anything, just announce that you believe the earth is flat, or only 6000 years old, and I’ll happily file you away in my mental bin labeled “bollocks”. That stuff is so stupid that O’Neal might convince me that basketball must be imaginary.
Time for a study on whether basketball causes brain damage?
Give Shaq a break. He’s 7’1″. The air is thinner up there. Not enough oxygen for his brain.
I guess he just played basketball instead of learning anything.
Something else Shaq sucks at besides free throws I guess.
Not sure what he was doing here except maybe flaunting his celebrity status: https://youtu.be/1f9IgOjZjn4
I loved him with the Magic though.
Speaking of athletes I don’t trust
The Saudi strangler & dismember prince has bought up Newcastle football club to do “sportswashing”, investing ridicilous amounts of money in recruiting football players.
.
As I recall the struggle against apartheid, I suggest we take the song “I ain’t gonnna play in Sun City” and change the place name to “Newcastle “.
Is it honestly any worse than a physicist’s very vocal views on anything except physics?
Perhaps someone can demonstrate to him how gravity works by showing him an ant walking across a basketball. The ant doesn’t “tip over” either.
And, Shaq, if your at the South Pole, you’re “upside down.” It doesn’t feel or look that way because gravity is pulling your feet toward the Earth and everything else is also “upside down.” I’m sure his mind would be blown.
Sadly, that is not the dumbest thing ever said on the Kyle and Jackie O Show.
drew@6,
It depends on the physicist. But it’s no worse than a lot of the crapola you come out with.
I am a furriner, I can decode everything except ixnay. “Nix”? Followed by ‘the flat earth BS’ .
Flat earthers, or flerfs for short, are the most useless creatures on the planet.When you combine all the things they deny, all the things they ignore and all the things they get wrong, you’ve pretty much summed up the whole of human knowledge.
Wait, so the star of Kazam, Steel, and Shaq-Fu is wrong about something? How could that be?
I defer to experts of mockery to debunk this shite.
“GAM190 Flat Earth Clues 1-7”
https://youtu.be/CzbdXielt_Y
@birgerjohansson:
Oh, “nix” is a perfectly cromulent word, albeit one rarely used. For whatever reason, it’s better known in its Pig Latin form. Ah, Wikt:ixnay actually says:
I’m pretty sure I heard “amscray” from Bugs Bunny when I was younger. The Three Stooges never really appealed to me, but it could well have gone from the Stooges to various cartoons.
@Walter #7:
But, in the ant’s case, that’s actually not due to gravity.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-do-flies-and-other-in/
OTOH, in Australian news:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-27/shaquille-o-neal-anthony-albanese-voice-to-parliament/101379246
[related?]
Speaking of well-paid athletes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2022/06/02/lebron-james-is-officially-a-billionaire/
(So exciting!)
@16- John Morales
Thanks for that more uplifting take on Shaq Fu.
I do have a personal subjective take on him as he was key in bringing success to the fledgling Orlando Magic long before the Dwight Howard era. Shaq greatly disappointed me by leaving. I didn’t mean to diminish his rapping on the Fu-Schnickens song. It was kinda weird how his presence sold the song though given a marginal role. More like a cameo. He got in a bit of hot water by employing his rap skills in a diss on Kobe Bryant.
https://www.espn.com/nba/news/story?id=3459208
”Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said the Phoenix Suns center’s use of a racially derogatory word and other foul language left him no choice. Arpaio made Shaq a special deputy in 2006 and promoted him to colonel of his largely ceremonial posse later that year.
“I want his two badges back,” Arpaio told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “Because if any one of my deputies did something like this, they’re fired. I don’t condone this type of racial conduct.””
Wait Joe Arpaio?
“At two press conferences held in March 2012, Arpaio and members of his Cold Case Posse claimed that President Barack Obama’s long-form birth certificate, released by the White House on April 27, 2011,[199] is a computer-generated forgery. The Posse also claimed that Obama’s Selective Service card was a forgery.[200][201] The allegations regarding the birth certificate were repeated at a July 2012 news conference in which Arpaio stated that Obama’s long-form birth certificate was “definitely fraudulent.”[202]… On August 25, 2017, President Donald Trump pardoned Arpaio for his conviction for criminal contempt of court, a decision that provoked considerable controversy.[217][218][219] The pardon covers Arpaio’s conviction and “any other offenses under Chapter 21 of Title 18, United States Code that might arise, or be charged, in connection with Melendres v. Arpaio.”[220]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Arpaio
Shaq makes your PM look tiny.
And everyone else, too. A bit like Gandalf and Frodo in the movie.